Boca Lawyer Can`t Practice For 5 Years

A Boca Raton lawyer convicted of money laundering and helping two clients evade paying taxes cannot practice law for at least five years.

Sheldon Maxwell Yavitz, 52, resigned before the Florida Supreme Court last month. The court had suspended Yavitz`s license to practice law a month earlier.

Jacqueline Needelman, the lawyer who represented The Florida Bar in proceedings against Yavitz, described the resignation as a severe penalty. Short of formal disbarment, the action against Yavitz is as serious as the state Supreme Court can take, she said.

``He`s not disbarred, but after five years he`ll have to reapply as if he had been,`` Needelman said. ``He`ll have to pass the bar (examination) again and go through a background check.``

Yavitz`s problems started when the U.S. Attorney`s Office charged he helped two clients evade paying taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. Both clients pleaded guilty to related charges. Yavitz also was charged with a general count of money laundering.

A jury in Fort Lauderdale convicted Yavitz in February. In May, U.S. District Court Judge Jose Gonzalez sentenced Yavitz to 10 years in prison. Court records show Yavitz`s office as being in the 7000 block of west Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton.

Yavitz ran afoul of federal prosecutors on one other occasion. He was disqualified from a murder-on-the-high-seas case by U.S. District Court Judge Norman Roettger in 1988 after prosecutors said Yavitz tried to influence a witness.

At that time, Yavitz discounted the allegation. He could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

The state Supreme Court last month issued a public reprimand against another Boca Raton lawyer, Kidders Harris Friedman, 50, of the 22600 block of Vistawood Way.

Friedman was accused of accepting $350 from a client in a divorce case, then not communicating with the client.